Jellyfish Tank

agoutihead

agoutihead

Member
ER.MD, I have seen that three tank jelly fish in the Mandalay bay, and stood there totally mesmerized.
I have wanted jellies ever since.
Yes sadly those kriesal tanks are the only way, but they look really cool and have a pretty sweet lighting setup.
Their pricey though.
But what isn't in this hobby?
 
zeroc

zeroc

Member
yeah you have to have the special tank so they say suspended in the middle of the tank and don't get blown around or sucked into anything. They are extremely delicate live naturally in pretty still water. Also some need special light as some photosynthesize.
 
farslayer

farslayer

Active Member
Looks like the DIY method may be out for me then :) I don't suppose anyone knows where to find a used one do they? I've never cared for sea horses myself, but have been intrigued by the jellies for quite some time. And that does raise a good question, how the heck do you easily clean the inside glass? I sure as he** ain't sticking MY hand in there! And what exactly is the siphon for, what would I be siphoning out?
 
nano reefer

nano reefer

Active Member
They cant be in a tank with corners... the tank has to be circular and have a powerhead blowing the water to make a cyclone, like a protein skimmer. There is some fancy german name for a tank like that but i dont rememeber it.
 
farslayer

farslayer

Active Member
Ok, so here's an idea. Say I took my bowfront and used something to create rounded corners, effectively creating space in the center of the tank which was more or less rounded, then using the space between the perforation and the tank sides as the area where I would install overflows and return jets? I made a VERY rough picture.
The red represents the tank obviously, showing the rounded walls I would create. At the tops and even the bottoms of each wall I would have slits to allow the water to flow into the space between the wall and the side of the tank. Inside these spaces, I would have an over flow box which would drain into a common sump where I would sterilize and filter the water, plus I'd have an in-sump chiller to keep the tank at the right temp (55-65 I believe).
Now, to return the water, I would use two powerheads placed at the bottom of the tank, one near the front and the other near the back, both blowing water back into the tank. I'm hoping to get some sort of cyclone effect by placing the return pumps on opposite sides of the tank, blowing in opposite directions. Plus, since they're at the bottom, they wouldn't bother the jellies.
For lighting, I would use T5s, as blue as I can get. I believe the moon jellies I was looking at ($35 each) are not photosynthetic and do well in captivity according to the site I was reading.
Any thoughts out there?
 
debbie

debbie

Active Member
At the Waikiki Aquarium they have several of these tanks and wow they are sure striking. I am definatley going back there again this year when we go back. Here are a coupld of pics from one of the tanks.

 
S

shark bait

Guest
their is a companu in one of the fish book TFH maybe that sells a tank just for jellies, go to you LFS and read some of them I have a few I'll look for ya.
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Have you googled "DIY Kreisel?"
Moon jellies are not particularly difficult to keep, with the right set up.
 
farslayer

farslayer

Active Member
I need to google that, very good advice! I guess I'm in the "is this really possible/affordable/won't get me divorced phase right now. What would be the easiest, non photosynthetic jelly to try to keep? I like the ones which fluoresce, but don't want to have to deal with MH lighting over a tank which has to be around 55 degrees :)
BTW, thanks for all the help, if I do opt to do this, I will absolutely document it, even if it ends up failing.
 
farslayer

farslayer

Active Member
Well, I've examined a few DIY sites, including one with a two articles by a fellow with a Masters degree in Marine Ecology. It appears as if the Kreisel system really just needs a square tank with a piece of styrene plastic in the form of an open "U" at the bottom, with plenty of holes to allow the water to drain into a collection area for filtration. So it looks as if my design was close, but I had the position of the styrene all wrong.
The water is returned to the system by way of a PVC pipe with holes in it, but I may go another route after I contact the author of the article (Adam Blundell). I'm not sure how you get water moving in a circular pattern however without using some sort of powerhead or jet. If the water drains through the holes in the styrene, then is pumped out (I'm using an overflow, I can't drill tempered glass afterall), and is return with a spray bar at the top, I don't see how I would really get ANY motion whatsoever.
The water will overflow into a 10G fuge and be returned on the other side of the tank if possible, maybe a light, gentle little spray or jet. I don't want to kill these freakin' things.
 
farslayer

farslayer

Active Member
Well, the fellow to whom I wrote earlier today REPLIED! Yup, he's going to answer all of my DIY questions regarding the jellyfish aquarium. Since I already have a chiller and a digital controller, and I have a 29G tank and a 10G for a sump, all I need is an overflow box, a return pump, some PVC, some styrene ($12!) and a few misc parts. Oh, yeah, and a jellyfish.
I think this project is going to go underway. I'm going to post occasionally to this thread as I move forward. Regardless of whether this system works or crashes, I'll let everybody know so that anyone else interested in keeping these magnificent creatures can have something to go by, good or bad.
This may be one of the coolest projects I've ever done, so hopefully this will be successful, but hey, who knows, right?
 
jerthunter

jerthunter

Active Member
Sounds awesome. If you get this worked out maybe the next you could try Ctenophores (comb jellifish). I really have no idea what kind of care would be required for them but they do tend to swim better than real jellys and they tend to fluoresce.
 
jimosburg

jimosburg

Member
I live in newport, ky. Aquarium is pretty cool. I just went to Boston over the weekend. Their aquarium has a killer Jellyfish display. The best I have seen
 
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